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Friday, August 5, 2011

min lokal

i honestly have been meaning to blog more, with y'know.. interesting words and pictures. but then you get to that point late at night when you realise that you'll be pulling an all-nighter if you dont get up immediately and get to work.

hopefully my late night spurts of productivity will lead to some more work-related posts, but in the meantime there is the ever present interest in eating. and tuesday was ideal for such a thing. the weather was unseasonably amazing. imagine the idyllic spring day minus the hayfever. come september i transform into a creature of slime and mucus and so this was a lovely singular day of experiencing better weather without the horror of looking like ive been crying for days on end.

kez, karin (fresh back from the motherland), fish and i wandered northward to min lokal (twice in two days) in fitzroy. the main draw was the fact that min lokal is swedish for my local. that rang alarm bells for us, thinking that there'd be gravlax and cinnamon buns for breakfast. but sadly the name was about as far as swedish references went. thats not to say that place was a bomb, by any stretch.

as i mentioned before the space was quite obviously a former home turned into cafe. unlike the day before we sat out the back in the sun. i didnt take photos of the coffee.. ive had a few soy lattes in a row now at different places to notice that there's this tendency to get ever-so-slightly claggy coffee. thats an awful description, but the milk just looks lumpy and not as smooth as id like it. i can clearly see bonsoy on the other side of the counter and its just mystifying because i dont personally find it too hard to achieve a silky consistency when i make it, and i wouldnt count myself as a top-ranking barista in any circles. so is it laziness? lack of necessary skillz? or am i completely in the dark when it comes to how soy should be made/served?

but anyway, moving back to breakfast. it was difficult to be fazed by anything owing to the weather. i ordered scrambled eggs with some goats fetta, chilli and some other bits and pieces. couldve done with more chilli but otherwise it was perfectly satisfying/simple food. the toast was also adequately buttered, which appealed to my masterchef-lovin' self.

kez had poached eggs with a bunch of sides, karin had the smoked salmon/roesti combo and mish had the most well-received dish. a claypot of baked eggs with rocket, taleggio and bacon. think of it as a lucky dip with only the possibility of good outcomes. i kept on finding my own fork absentmindedly shoved into her food as opposed to mine. awkward.

i got to that ideal point of being content, but not too bogged down with food. i can imagine going back again, the place is so slow and relaxed and to me that definitely rubs off onto customers. the main reason why i avoid the bigger joints on the weekends is the deep fear of weekend crowds, and i dont feel like min lokal could ever become of those sorts of places no matter how many people force themselves upon it.